Recover the root password

Due to the way MySQL encrypts passwords it is not possible to recover one, There is however a way of resetting one. Here is how to do it for the root user…

at a command prompt type…

1. sudo service mysqld stop
2. sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &
3. sudo mysql
   then in MySQL
4. UPDATE mysql.user SET password=PASSWORD('new-password') WHERE user='root';
5. FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
6. EXIT;
7. mysqladmin -u root -p shutdown
   You will be asked for the root password that you have just set
8. sudo service mysqld start

That's all folks!